Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Sheltering Sky
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
The Sheltering Sky is a landmark of twentieth-century literature. In this intensely fascinating story, Paul Bowles examines the ways in which Americans' incomprehension of alien cultures leads to the ultimate destruction of those cultures. A story about three American travelers adrift in the cities and deserts of North Africa after World War II, The Sheltering Sky explores the limits of humanity when it touches the unfathomable emptiness and impassive cruelty of the desert. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
blurb
Tamra
post image

At my husband‘s suggestion after talking about quiet fiction…..I‘m going to start this one.

It‘s a crying shame lilacs wilt so quickly after cutting because the fragrance is divine.

Aimeesue I spent two weeks going out back (with the dogs, so I didn‘t look weird) and hanging out by my tiny lilac bushes so I could huff the blooms. 😂 They‘re tiny and this was the first year any of them bloomed - I was thrilled! They‘re gone too fast. 7mo
LeahBergen I love lilacs! Ours have yet to bloom in my part of the world. 7mo
Ruthiella I found this book to be a weird one. I look forward to your thoughts! 7mo
See All 9 Comments
Tamra @Aimeesue nothing weird at all about huffing lilacs IMO. 😆 7mo
Tamra @LeahBergen wishing you fragrant blooms soon! Spring in the north is so unreliable. Not my favorite season, but I take anything I can get. (edited) 7mo
Tamra @Ruthiella let‘s see how far I get.🤞🏾 (edited) 7mo
Cathythoughts Now that the lilacs are in bloom. She has a bowl of lilacs in her room 🥰 7mo
sarahbarnes Lilacs are my favorite flower. I agree with you. 7mo
44 likes1 stack add9 comments
review
tphil10283
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
Pickpick

It‘s a very good book about some American travelers that run in to trouble in the Sahara in the late 1940‘s. The only thing I didn‘t like about the story is that the ending is somewhat ambiguous for my liking.

quote
Rockconey
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image

By the road sometimes were high clumps of dead thistle plants, coated with white dust, and from the plants the locusts called, a high, unceasing scream like the sound of heat itself.

2 likes2 stack adds
blurb
bohemian_yogini
post image
quote
bohemian_yogini
post image

“He did not think of himself as a tourist; he was a traveler. The difference is partly one of time, he would explain. Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of earth to another.”

#bookswithbohemianyogini

blurb
Augustdana
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image

#riotgrams day 19: favourite school read. My copy is ON LOAN and I am regretting it so hard. So here‘s my favourite quote, we read this in university and it‘s one of the few books I‘ve read more than once.

review
karenna
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image
Panpan

I did not enjoy this book exploring the psychology of an American couple as they travel in North Africa. The pace was too slow; the characters behaved too oddly. While not for me, it may appeal to readers interested in issues related to existential theory, gender studies, and racism. It could also foster lively book group discussions, such as whether the male author accurately portrays females. Trigger warning: disturbing sexual content.

blurb
Leftcoastzen
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image

Paul Bowles , it‘s his birthday .(1910-1999)Only child , more or less permanent expat , composer, and writer.I loved Sheltering Sky , the movie , not so much. Though not a beat, he inspired Ginsberg ,Burroughs and other beats to visit .Burroughs ended up living in Tangier for 4 years.Bowles lived there 52 years.His wife Jane Bowles wrote Two Serious Ladies ,another book I love.

LeahBergen I have Two Serious Ladies waiting on my shelf. 👍🏻 7y
Leftcoastzen @LeahBergen I think you will enjoy it . 7y
20 likes2 comments
review
OhNoMersault
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
Panpan

Nope. All of the mental masturbation of Camus and Sartre with none of the talent.

BookNAround Oh dear! 7y
25 likes1 comment
blurb
OhNoMersault
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image

This is the fifth book in a row to feature sexual assault. Crawling under a rock.

blurb
OhNoMersault
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles

Reading this for book club. Do you ever red a book and wish that any single other supporting or bit part character was the protagonist instead of who you‘re actually stuck with?

TommieMarie74 Yes!!!! 7y
Julsmarshall Definitely! 7y
29 likes2 comments
blurb
OhNoMersault
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image

“If on these days she was subdued and seemed most reasonable, it was only because she was imitating mechanically what she considered rational behavior.” The holidays with extended family is a prime example of my behaving this way.

blurb
Kinga-Bee
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image

This is how I like to start my day. I'm going to dedicate the entire Sunday to this book so it'd better be good.

Augustdana I don‘t know what it is about this book, but i love it. I hope you enjoy 7y
2 likes1 comment
quote
Augustdana
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image

Saw one of my favourite bands last night and they opened with a song that quotes one of the best lines "because we do not know when we will die we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times...how many more times will will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless"

5 likes1 stack add
blurb
mbakija
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image

Juggling umbrella, wallet, scarf, giant bag, book, etc. on subway platform this morning when a woman, rushing by in conversation with a man, stopped and said, "That book is so good!" and, surprised by early-morning subway platform interaction, I blurted, "Thank you!" Thank you for recognizing my good taste? Thank you for confirming my suspicions, 10 pages in? Thank you, but actually I didn't write it? Thank you for the brief connection, stranger!

2 likes1 stack add
quote
GoneFishing
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles

Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another. Indeed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived, precisely where it was he had felt most at home.

23 likes1 stack add
quote
Obviousstate
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image

How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”

451Degrees Gorgeous picture!☺️ 8y
Donna_sBookMinute Yes, the layout is very nice. 8y
58 likes6 stack adds3 comments
blurb
Xanadude
The Sheltering Sky | Paul Bowles
post image

1 stack add